FEATURE:
A Buyer’s Guide
PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Part Fifty-Seven: Laura Nyro
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THERE is a lot of…
good biography about Laura Nyro at AllMusic. The New York-born songwriter died tragically young at the age of forty-nine in 1997. Nyro was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. Artists from Elton John, Carole King, to Kate Bush, Steely Dan and Jackson Browne have cited Nyro as an influence and talked about her importance. I think, despite that, we do not hear her music all that much on the radio. Maybe the best-known songs will be played, though not deeper cuts. Before concluding, I wanted to bring in a little of that AllMusic biography:
“During the singer/songwriter movement in the late '60s and early '70s, Laura Nyro was one of the most celebrated tunesmiths of her day, penning soulful, literate songs that took the folky introspection of her peers and infused it with elements of soul, R&B, jazz, and gospel, giving them an emotional heat that set her apart. Nyro was a well-respected recording artist, whose confident piano work and rich, expressive vocals made albums like 1968's Eli and the Thirteenth Confession and 1969's New York Tendaberry classics, and she demonstrated how powerfully classic R&B and girl group material had influenced her on the all-covers set Gonna Take a Miracle, recorded in tandem with Labelle. However, while she made great records, Nyro's passionate style was considered too idiosyncratic for the Top 40, and her songs were better known in versions recorded by other artists; the 5th Dimension, Three Dog Night, Barbra Streisand, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Peter, Paul & Mary all scored hit singles with her material. Nyro's frustrations with her lack of success as a performer, coupled with her desire to maintain her privacy, led to her periodically retiring from recording and performing, but latter-day efforts like 1984's Mother's Spiritual and 1993's Walk the Dog and Light the Light revealed she was still a compelling singer and pianist, while her social, political, and environmental concerns pushed her lyrics in new directions.
Laura Nyro was born Laura Nigro on October 18, 1947 in the Bronx section of New York City. Her father Louis Nigro was a jazz trumpet player who also tuned pianos, while her mother Gilda Nigro (born Gilda Mirsky) was a bookkeeper. By her own admission, Laura was not an especially happy child, and she retreated into music and poetry, teaching herself to play piano and soaking up the influences of her mother's favorite singers, among them Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, and Leontyne Price. By the time she was eight years old, Laura had started writing songs, and she would later attend the Manhattan High School of Music & Art, where developed a greater appreciation for folk and jazz styles. (Laura would also attend meetings at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, citing the latter as a major influence on her progressive political views.) In her teens, Laura would enjoy the sounds of the harmony groups who would gather at parties and on street corners, and developed a special fondness for girl group sounds, soul, and the great songs that came out of the Brill Building.
More Than a New DiscoveryIn 1966, Artie Mogull, a veteran A&R man and music publisher, hired Louis Nigro to tune the piano in his office, and Louis persuaded Artie to listen to his daughter sing her songs. The next day, Laura sang "Wedding Bell Blues," "And When I Die," and "Stoney End" for Mogull, and he quickly signed her to a publishing deal, while Mogull and his business partner Paul Barry became her managers. Laura had been using a variety of assumed names for her music at that point, and she settled on Laura Nyro as her professional handle once she turned professional. Nyro's new managers got her gigs at the famous San Francisco night club the Hungry i, as well as the groundbreaking 1969 Monterey Pop Festival, and that same year, she released her first album, More Than a New Discovery, on Verve-Folkways Records. Sales were modest, but Peter, Paul & Mary scored a hit with their version of "And When I Die," and Nyro's career began to take off.
Christmas and the Beads of SweatDavid Geffen took over Nyro's management, successfully suing to void her previous contracts as they were signed when she was under 18. With Geffen's help, Nyro established her own publishing company and signed a new record deal with Columbia Records. Nyro's first album for the label, 1968's Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, was a more personal and sophisticated effort than her debut, in both songs and arrangements, and it received enthusiastic reviews in the rock press. Sales were good, though not up to the level of her critical acclaim, and the same was true for 1969's New York Tendaberry. However, Nyro was increasingly well regarded as a songwriter; the 5th Dimension had scored major chart hits with their versions of "Stoned Soul Picnic," "Sweet Blindness," "Wedding Bell Blues," and "Blowing Away," and Blood, Sweat & Tears hit the charts with "And When I Die," which drew discerning listeners to her original recordings of the songs. By the time Christmas and the Beads of Sweat was released in 1970 (which produced Nyro's only Top 100 single, a cover of "Up on the Roof"), she had sold her increasingly lucrative publishing company for $4.5 million, as more hits continued to flow from her pen; "Eli's Coming" was recorded by Three Dog Night to great success, and Barbra Streisand's album Stoney End featured three of Nyro's songs (and Streisand's version of the title track bore no small resemblance to the original recording on More Than a New Discovery)”.
To honour the great Laura Nyro, I have recommended her essential albums. I would encourage people to spend some time and listen to her entire catalogue if they can. If you need an idea of where to start in terms of buying her albums, then I think this feature should help you out. Nearly twenty-five years after her death, she is a hugely important artist who continues to inspire. As you will hear from the songs and suggestions below, she was…
VERY much a one-a-the-kind.
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The Four Essential Albums
More Than a New Discovery (Reissued as The First Songs in 1973)
Release Date: February 1967
Label: Verve Folkways
Producer: Milton Okun
Standout Tracks: Billy's Blues/Wedding Bell Blues/Blowing Away
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=199554&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/2k2Jh2d9QsDLb0ODrOSVkd?si=u2V5IGHfQWOXCjOXQXWkLg
Review:
“These 12 sides represent singer/songwriter Laura Nyro's earliest professional recordings. More Than a New Discovery was originally issued on the Folkways label in conjunction with Verve Records in early 1967. The contents were subsequently reissued as The First Songs in 1969 after she began to garner national exposure with her first two LPs for Columbia -- Eli and the Thirteenth Confession (1968) and New York Tendaberry (1969), respectively. Many of these titles became international hits for some of the early '70s most prominent pop music vocalists and bands. Among them, "Wedding Bell Blues" and "Blowing Away" were covered by the Fifth Dimension. "And When I Die" became one of Blood, Sweat & Tears signature pieces. Likewise, "Stoney End," as well as "I Never Meant to Hurt You," are both arguably best known via Barbra Streisand's renditions. Accompanied by a small pop combo, Nyro's prowess as both composer and performer are evidence that she was a disciple of both Tin Pan Alley as well as the Brill Building writers. Additionally, Nyro was able to blend the introspection of a classic torch ballad with an undeniable intimacy inherent in her lyrics. "Buy and Sell," as well as "Billy's Blues," exemplify her marriage of jazz motifs within a uniquely pop music structure. Also immediately discernible is that these were far from simplistic, dealing with the organic elements that tether all of humanity, such as love, death, loss, and even redemption. While artists such as Tim Buckley and Joni Mitchell were attempting to do the same, much of their early catalog is considerably less focused in comparison. For example, "Lazy Susan" incorporates the same acoustic noir that would become the centerpiece of her future epics "Gibsom Street" and the title track to New York Tendaberry. There are a few differences worth noting when comparing More Than a New Discovery and First Songs. After Columbia Records bought Nyro out of her contract with Verve/Forecast, they also issued this collection in 1973 as First Songs, boasting a revised running order, as well as a title change from "Hands Off the Man" -- as listed here -- to "Flim Flam Man." Beginning in 2002, Sony/Legacy began an exhaustive overhaul of Nyro's classic '70s albums. In addition to remastered sound and newly incorporated artwork and liner notes, the series also boasts "bonus tracks" where applicable. Both casual listeners, as well as seasoned connoisseurs, can find much to discover and rediscover on these seminal sides from Laura Nyro” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Stoney End
Eli and the Thirteenth Confession
Release Date: 13th March, 1968
Label: Columbia
Producers: Laura Nyro/Charlie Calello
Standout Tracks: Sweet Blindness/Eli's Comin'/Woman's Blues
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=99400&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/533zqKatpy90jse2K5IaiQ?si=Ze70fbLjSnOKLyiV5qKC-g
Review:
“Nyro peaked early, and Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, just her second album, remains her best. It's not only because it contains the original versions of no less than three songs that were big hits for other artists: "Sweet Blindness" (covered by the 5th Dimension), "Stoned Soul Picnic" (also covered by the 5th Dimension), and "Eli's Comin'" (done by Three Dog Night). It's not even just because those three songs are so outstanding. It's because the album as a whole is so outstanding, with its invigorating blend of blue-eyed soul, New York pop, and early confessional singer/songwriting. Nyro sang of love, inscrutably enigmatic romantic daredevils, getting drunk, lonely women, and sensual desire with an infectious joie de vivre. The arrangements superbly complemented the material with lively brass, wailing counterpoint backup vocals, and Nyro's own ebullient piano”- AllMusic
Choice Cut: Stoned Soul Picnic
New York Tendaberry
Release Date: 24th September, 1969
Label: Columbia
Producers: Laura Nyro/Roy Halee
Standout Tracks: Time and Love/The Man Who Sends Me Home/New York Tendaberry
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=99403&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/7x2WkwfDyXqrFxswIhlT6V?si=hv_cCJVxRUilCt6KKXStpA
Review:
“At the Post Exchange on base the next day, I found her new “New York Tendaberry” album; the cover just like in my dream. I listened to nothing else for weeks, months.
Her voice ached with intimate longing in pain or rang proud with love; in musical frames ranging from just her piano to big orchestrations that rolled like parades. Her songs, cinematic and sympathetic, portrayed characters in their deepest hearts, as if listening through a keyhole to secrets that can’t be said but must be sung.
She was deepest and most compelling in darker moods. Any album that starts “You don’t love me when I cry” promises a rough ride, perfect for that time when missing my first lost love surrounded me like air. In “Captain* for Dark Mornings,” she pleads in a long fade, “Captain, say yes,” but the song doesn’t console falsely. She has nearly rebuilt herself in “Tom Cat Goodby,” a blithe retelling of Frankie and Johnny’s deadly tale of betrayal and revenge that reaches for refuge but instead finds desperation.
In the next two songs, her voice itself becomes orchestral. She stacks it high in layered choruses in “Mercy on Broadway,” sometimes with the tile-walled echo of subway singers. Then she strips off the years in “Save the Country,” leaving it bare in childlike, hopeful innocence, a call to renewal, to goodness, to salvation in togetherness.
“Gibsom Street” lets the heart catch its breath and start to climb out of isolation. It’s springtime.
Whenever I listened to the album, this and the next tune, ”Time and Love,” always brought me a sense of relief, words of hope riding hand in hand with a melody of pure uplift.
“The Man Who Sends Me Home” has a wistful serenity that deepens as the arrangement fades to leave behind everything but voice and piano and longing. When the sound rebuilds as drums, bass then a heaven of flutes join in “Sweet Lovin’ Baby,” the sun comes out.
Captain Saint Lucifer” has a brash, swaggering sound, horns and woodwinds and the album’s most emphatic beats, but it curls back to a solitary piano.
“New York Tendaberry” makes love to her town, going big and brassy, then whispering in reverent tenderness” – Nippertown
Choice Cut: Save the Country
Gonna Take a Miracle (with Labelle)
Release Date: 17th November, 1971
Label: Columbia
Producers: Kenny Gamble/Leon Huff
Standout Tracks: You've Really Got a Hold on Me/Spanish Harlem/Nowhere to Run
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=99405&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6867EFvLm4xENyg1pdcRdh?si=LgDMeck-SWiaPzLrIJDb5g
Review:
“This album comes at the nicest time within Laura Nyro's career, for like most of the other performers that have cut a swath through pop music over the past couple of years, she's lately had to deal with those problems which naturally come with artistic growing up. Her last record showed very direct leanings toward a tired reliance on old faithfuls, and it must have ultimately motivated her to try something different. This album of Laura's interpretations of R&B; classics is the result. And, if nothing else, Gonna Take A Miracle bears witness to the fact that Laura Nyro has the best record collection on Central Park West. She touches on quite a divergent span while remaining faithful to a single, very individual vision.
After all, when you open an album with "I Met Him On A Sunday," do "Dancing In The Street" and the Charts' "Desiree" right next to each other, toss up the reverse with "Spanish Harlem" and then sandwich another classic Fifties' group song ("The Wind") between two more Martha and the Vandellas' cuts ("Jimmy Mack," "No Where To Run") and end the whole thing with the above-mentioned title track–well, it's clear that you're not dealing here with the ninth repackaging of the RCA British Blues Archives.
In fact, if it just stopped at concept, timing and programming, it could've been said that Laura Nyro had constructed something akin to the perfect in-between album. But the actual show of force contained on the record skitters awry, and what's left is a collection of great songs that work on a hit-or-miss basis; there are times when her fabled magic takes over and does whole numbers on your sound system, and there are others where she just sounds weak and out-of-depth” – Rolling Stone
Choice Cut: I Met Him on a Sunday
The Underrated Gem
Smile
Release Date: February 1976
Label: Columbia
Producers: Laura Nyro/Charlie Calello
Standout Tracks: Sexy Mama/Stormy Love/Midnite Blue
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=99406&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6O0oYnqKEzeOiypkLwGbTX?si=TYScamcDShWpx0gyxZdCfA
Review:
“After a five-year hiatus, singer/songwriter Laura Nyro returned in 1976 with Smile. On this disc, Nyro's somewhat idiosyncratic writing and performance style is decidedly subdued. In its stead is a light pop and jazz feel similar to that of Maria Muldaur's mid-'70s recordings. Supporting Nyro instrumentally is virtually a who's-who of New York and Los Angeles studio stalwarts. While the prowess of folks like Will Lee (bass), brothers Randy Brecker (trumpet) and Michael Brecker (flute/sax), Hugh McCracken (guitar), and Rick Marotta (drums) certainly strengthens Nyro's already laid-back material, it likewise reduces her to sounding like a Joni Mitchell ripoff. The undeniable highlight of Smile is the maturity in the songwriting. It becomes obvious that the half-decade away has done some significant good in revealing a decidedly positive evolution in Nyro's approach to her own life. What's more is that the material on this album seems to come from a place of contentment. The influence of her work with the female soul vocal trio LaBelle on Gonna Take a Miracle -- prior to her mini-retirement -- also seems to be a source of inspiration throughout this disc. The high and tight vocal harmonies (all of which are credited to Nyro) are wholly rewarding and hark back to her R&B-induced "Wedding Bell Blues" and "Stoned Soul Picnic." This is most evident on the opening track, "Sexy Mama" (penned by Harry Ray, Joe Robinson, and Al Goodman), which was also a hit for the R&B vocal group the Moments. The intimate nature of "I Am the Blues" and "Midnite Blue" are reminiscent of older Nyro favorites such as "Emmie" and "Captain St. Lucifer." In all, Smile is much like a musical letter from an old acquaintance and casts a direct light onto the next phase in Laura Nyro's recording career” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: I Am the Blues
The Final Album
Angel in the Dark
Release Date: 2001
Label: Rounder Records
Standout Tracks: Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow/Serious Playground/Animal Grace
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=379103&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/2yKqPEP0CpfyCRk39sdbHz?si=OOc3kKe1QpOfvC47F2JKDQ
Review:
“Angel in the Dark, released last week on Rounder Records, was recorded in 1995 when Nyro was undergoing chemotherapy, and she might well have chosen these songs as her way of leaving us with their timeless beauty. Sixteen tracks pay homage to her roots with loving covers of "Let It Be Me" and "La La Means I Love You," as well as Carole King's "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" and Smokey Robinson's "Ooh Baby Baby." These songs form the core of the album, along with standards like "He Was Too Good to Me," "Embraceable You," "Walk on By," and "Be Aware." Together, these eight tracks represent Nyro's youth in the Bronx, her precocious understanding of composition, poetry, and art, and the intuitive way she had of channeling it all into a new song like "Sweet Dream Fade" with deft familiarity.
"Gardenia Talk" is another one of Nyro's seven new gems. Its cool jazzy flavor was a highlight in her last performances, and fans who were hoping for it on Walk the Dog and Light the Light will delight in its appearance. Here is Nyro skittering around with breezy assurance and easy familiarity. Similarly, "Serious Playground" is classic Nyro ("My boss is my muse," she sings without a hint of irony). It's as soulful and yearning as the title track "Angel in the Dark," so fresh and vibrant with her own translucent harmonies overlaid, as is the equally lush "Triple Twilight Goddess."
Nyro's conscience is evident to the end: "Animal Grace" reflects Nyro's public support of animal rights and "Don't Hurt Child" is her paean for children. And the album-closing "Coda" is just what it sounds like, a patch of the title track's ending with Nyro's lonesome harmonies calling, "Come back, baby, come back." If only life were as easy as the songs, and Laura Nyro could be called back.
Laura Nyro's stars rest not in the sky, but in the glinting grit of New York sidewalks. The city was her world, and she was an acute observer of its urban mystique. Nyro embraced that in her timeless music with an exuberance "Stoned Soul Picnic" expressed so poetically in shades of red, yellow, honey, sassafras, and moonshine. It remains as good as any a self-penned epitaph for the life and love of Laura Nyro: "There'll be trains of music, there'll be music” – The Austin Chronicle
Choice Cut: Gardenia Talk
The Laura Nyro Book
Soul Picnic: The Music and Passion of Laura Nyro
Author: Michele Kort
Publication Date: 14th May, 2003
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin/St. Martin's Press
Synopsis:
“Laura Nyro was a beloved and pioneering singer-songwriter of the 1960s and 1970s, whose songs were covered with great success by the Fifth Dimension; Blood, Sweat & Tears; Three Dog Night; and Barbra Streisand. This first biography uncovers previously never revealed details, including a love affair with Jackson Browne, and her relationship with painter Maria Desiderio.
Unappreciated in her time, Nyro's legacy is currently experiencing a revival. With her groundbreakingly honest and passionate lyrics, her unusual and innovative rhythms and melody, Nyro's influence is still felt by singers and songwriters today" – Macmillan Publishers